Search Engine Land is your source for Facebook news and content. You’ll find a variety of up-to-date and authoritative resources, including the latest news, tactic-rich tutorials, and the latest data to help you work smarter and make better decisions.
What you read here is written by our experienced in-house team, and subject matter experts from leading brands and agencies.
Don’t miss out! Get the Search Engine Land newsletter delivered daily to your inbox. Subscribe for free!
Search marketers agree: automation the least favorite part of PPC
We asked and you answered. Automation and lack of transparency ring in at number one. Support and clients are a close second.
Meta rumored to develop ‘Basic Ads’ in response to recent privacy changes
The Basic ads may work for brand advertisers but not so well for any companies that need granular targeting and lead generation.
Webinar: Benchmark your social media performance for a competitive edge
Get the trends and real-life examples of brands outperforming on social.
Virtual environment optimization (VEO): The next evolution of SEO?
Are the worlds of virtual reality, augmented reality, the metaverse, commerce and SEO converging? Learn what the latest trends reveal.
Facebook confirms ‘massive ranking failure’
A bug allowed Facebook posts with nudity, violence, Russian propaganda to appear in users' news feeds.
Facebook ads ‘Interest Categories’ may be up to 33% inaccurate
But before pulling ad spends to different platforms, it is worthwhile to assess the current account performance and make adjustments from that data.
Facebook warns publishers to avoid ‘watchbait’ tactics
These tactics will result in fewer recommendations, less views and limited ranking. Learn how to avoid what Facebook considers watchbait.
Facebook drops ‘News’ from News Feed in rebrand
The News Feed is no more. Facebook says the News Feed will now simply be known as the Feed.
Facebook says short posts have the most views while hate speech drops on platform
The third quarter transparency reports give us more insight into the platform, but it’s unclear whether the company’s wide-ranging efforts to restore its reputation will have the desired effect.
Makes you miss the ‘Don’t be evil’ days; Tuesday’s daily brief
Plus, Facebook's aging user base and what it means for advertisers.
Facebook Ads announces new performance, reporting and measurement products in light of iOS privacy changes
These new improvements on the Facebook Ad side are an attempt to fill that reporting and measurement gap while still maintaining user privacy.
Search results, but without the search results page; Thursday’s daily brief
Plus, leaked documents suggest Amazon is abusing its position in India.
Google provides some reasons why it won’t use your HTML title tags; Monday’s daily brief
Plus, Instagram tests ‘Map Search’ and last-minute holiday shopping SEO tips.
New automation in Facebook Ads?; Monday’s daily brief
Plus, how to drive the funnel through content marketing and link building
Awkward: SMBs think they know their customers; their customers disagree; Monday’s daily brief
Plus, should Google be the content curator AND creator?
Instagram is disabling interest and activity-based targeting of underage users
Advertisers’ targeting options for users under 18 will be limited to age, gender and location.
Facebook testing virtual reality ads in Oculus VR
This opportunity may be perfect for many advertisers to reach a new or specific type of audience if the tests go well.
Facebook Import is now available in Microsoft Advertising
Advertisers can import up to 10,000 campaigns for each account.
Microsoft Advertising announces Unified Smart: A single management solution for multi-channel paid advertising and social media
The solution will not charge management or service fees or commissions. Businesses will only pay for their ad spend.
Facebook revenue almost doubled: Here’s what it means for advertisers
In addition to a decrease in overall metrics, some marketers reported a decline in the performance of lookalike audiences.
Maryland’s ad tax is here, and advertisers should look to their European counterparts for how to deal with it
Last year, Google passed digital service taxes onto advertisers in the UK, Turkey and Austria, and it’s likely to do the same in the U.S. as well.
Facebook blocks Trump for remainder of term while Twitter sets permanent ban
Numerous advertisers have paused their social media campaigns over the events at the Capitol.
Halting campaigns shouldn’t be your only brand safety precaution
After the storming of the Capitol, some brands are going dark with their social media ads, but a rapid response workflow and diversifying channels can help them continue to drive business.
Mobile shopping is gaining share this holiday season
More digital retail conversions are happening on mobile in 2020.
Social Shorts: Twitter adds frequency caps, Reddit’s audience grows, Facebook buys Kustomer
Twitter enables frequency capping for all campaign types Advertisers can now control the number of times ads are shown to users with campaign frequency caps. The feature is available in ad group details for Reach, Engagement, Video Views, and Pre-Roll Views objectives by default. Why we care. Frequency capping will allow advertisers to tailor their […]
Social Shorts: Snapchat’s TikTok rival is here, Facebook teams with BBB for ad reviews
Snapchat puts the “Spotlight” on top Snaps, will pay creators Snapchat has launched Spotlight to feature the best Snaps in a new feed aimed squarely at countering rival TikTok. Creators whose videos are selected can “earn a share of more than $1 million that we’re distributing to creators every day!,” said the company. Creators can […]
Social Shorts: YouTube expands ad inventory, Twitter launches Fleets, more
YouTube to show ads on channels that aren’t in the Partner Program In it’s latest terms of service update, YouTube creators agree to allow the service to monetize their content with ads (or by charging users for access) but are not necessarily entitled to revenue sharing. To be eligible for YouTube’s revenue sharing Partner Program […]
Social Shorts: Instagram pegs Reels and Shop, Pinterest’s engagement metric, TikTok’s size and more
Why Pinterest moved beyond CTR to understand ad engagement Relying on a straight click-through rate metric to understand how ads are resonating has its shortcomings, explained Pinterest engineers in a blog post. Those shortcomings include not accounting for ad position bias, users’ Save or Hide actions and brand awareness objectives. Instead, Pinterest explains, it developed […]
Social Shorts: Snapchat advertiser certifications, YouTube masthead ads go full CPM, more
Facebook Ads bugs unnerve advertisers Last week, more bugs beset a wide number of advertiser accounts and ads, causing temporary ad disapprovals and accounts being disabled. “This is the second widespread bug that we’ve seen impact Facebook campaigns in the last 4 weeks,’ said Zenia Johnson of 3Q Digital. Why we care. Advertiser frustrations over […]
More Facebook Ads bugs unnerve advertisers ahead of Black Friday, Cyber Monday
Will Snapchat and Pinterest benefit from advertiser frustrations?
COVID helped drive record ad revenue for big tech in Q3
Facebook, Google and Amazon all reported significant revenue growth during, and partly because of, the pandemic.
Social Shorts: TikTok teams with Shopify, Commerce ads dominate Facebook, LinkedIn users top 722 million
TikTok jumps into social commerce with Shopify TikTok’s advertising division TikTok for Business announced a global integration with Shopify Tuesday that makes it easy for Shopify merchants to promote their products on the short-form video social network. The two companies also announced #ShopBlack to amplify Black-owned Shopify merchants on TikTok. Why we care. This marks […]
Social Shorts: Snapchat’s rising ARPU, Facebook’s moves on Nextdoor, Instagram’s age controls
Snapchat’s North America ARPU shoots up Snapchat reported revenues increased 52% year-over-year to $679 million and average daily active users (DAUs) increased by 18% year-over-year to $249 million for the third quarter of the year. One stat that stood out to us in particular was the average revenue per user (ARPU) in North America. Overall […]
Facebook launches new Shopping audiences, Instagram Product Tag ads, tests Shops discounts
Facebook continues to expand Shopping capabilities and features across its platforms.
Social Shorts: Pinterest users index high on gift giving, TikTok’s brand safety solution, more
Pinterest users are heavy gift shoppers Compared to other social media, Pinterest users are the top spenders on gifts and holiday shopping. That’s among the findings from StatSocial which looked at the purchases of millions of U.S.-based users of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Snapchat and Pinterest. It found that Pinterest users spend 39.2% more on […]
Social Shorts: Facebook attribution change on hold, Instagram gets more shoppable, turns 10
Scratch that: Facebook’s 28-day attribution window lives, for now In response to advertiser feedback, Facebook will not move forward with a test to remove the default 28-day attribution window for advertisers. Gil David of Run DMG shared the news on LinkedIn, commenting “Facebook demonstrates that they do actually listen to advertisers.” He cited the company’s […]
Microsoft’s Digital Marketing Center for search and social management adds features, opens beta
The free platform is now open to U.S. small businesses.
Congressional report blasts Google, Apple, Amazon and Facebook as monopolistic ‘gatekeepers’ of the digital economy
Breaking up these companies will apparently be on the table.
Social Shorts: Snapchat reach campaigns, Facebook attribution change, TikTok downloads can continue
Snapchat pitches Platform Burst reach option for advertisers Snapchat is floating a new advertising offering called Platform Burst. The idea is to guarantee that “campaigns will reach at least 40% of their target audience 15 times” over a three or five day period, according to Digiday. Platform Burst campaigns can encompass different ad formats across […]
Social Shorts: Facebook’s 20% rule, Pinterest Story Pins, Reddit brand safety options
So long, 20% text limit in Facebook ad images Facebook Ads is officially removing its 20% text rule. The company’s rule that text not take up more than 20% of ad images is now a mere suggestion: “We’ve found that images with less than 20% text perform better. With this in mind, we recommend keeping […]